I just changed the front brake pads last night, and the pedal has been going to the floor without much effort. Now I have to pump the brake pedal three times or more to be able to stop. Anyone know what might be wrong with this? I thought there might be air in the system, but then the problem didn't start until after I changed the pads (don't know if they're related).

Thanks!

You have to bleed all four calipers to get the air out of the system.

But do you think it's air in the system though? I looked at the resouviour, and the brake fluid is full. But it's all black, not clear fluid.

BTW, how much fluid do I need? My car came without the owners manual so I don't know.

AirKnight how did you compress the calipers?
Did you open the bleed screw, or just squeeze the piston back in with the bleeder closed?
If you opened the bleed screw you could have let air in as the fluid came out, if you didn't air got in somewhere else.

Get someone to help you and start with the passenger side rear bleeder,then driverside rear,the pass.side front then dr. side front.

If this doesn't work you may have a ruptured hose or cracked piston letting air into the system. Hope this helps!!

Mike

I didn't open the bleed screw when pushing the pistons back. But I did dropped the driver's front calipers, so I think that hose is cracked. What I don't understand is, the system isn't loosing any fluid.

It's possible that air got in a crack in the hose, but fluid is not coming out. Not likely however.

Air is compressible, so if there is air in there, the pedal will drop to the floor.

How many times have you pressed the pedal to the floor? It takes a few pumps before the firmness returns as you fill the cylinders in the caliper. So yes, it will go to the floor a couple of times. Then it should return to full firmness.

Are the pads on correctly. I do believe that improper installation of the pads can cause the symptoms you mention.

Brake fluid should look more like GingerAle than CocaCola, FWIW.

If there are no leaks and you've gotten the air out, the next thing to check is the master cylinder. Pushing the fluid back through there may have ruptured one of the seals in it.

If that is the case, you will be bleeding brakes for sure once that repair is complete.

TB

I believe they're on correctly. I pressed the inner pad into the piston, and put the outter pad on the caliper bracket...

And the hold down springs, do they look like this:

As someone else mentioned, the clips must be installed properly and if they are not you will have an eratic pedal and sometime even a rattle.

Another posibility as others have mentioned is air in the system and you should bleed the system carefull and thoroughly to make sure all the air is expelled.

Still another posibility (but not nearly as likely) is that one of the cups in the master cylinder has collapsed. This can happen if the brake fluid is trashy from collapsing the pistons on the calipers, especially if you push them in very rapidly. This is a good reason (among many others) to change the brake fluid from time to time. If one of the cups in the master has collapsed, the master needs to be replaced.

FIXED!

Thanks TB! The clips was not sitting on properly, I had them pushing away from the caliper brackets instead of pulling into them brackets!

Now I have another problem though, the brake fade like crap when I apply moderate pressure... I was out trying to bed them in, and could smell of those stuff burning. Then when I do the final stage of the bed-in process (hard braking), the brakes didn't stop too well! I almost pissed my pants when I came to a stop sign, and the car wouldn't stop with my foot standing on the pedal (it's not bottomed out); it didn't even lock the front wheel and no ABS kicked in at all!

My question now is, will the fading go away tomorrow? FYI, I bought some Hi-Per Tech Metallic pads off eBay (probably just some generic pads).